Why Vendors Ignore Your RFPs (And How to Get Better Responses)
Why Vendors Ignore Your RFPs (And How to Get Better Responses)
You spent two days writing your RFP. You researched vendors, compiled an email list, and sent it out to twelve companies. You set a three-week deadline and waited.
Three weeks later, you have two responses. One is from a company you've never heard of, and the other is incomplete.
Sound familiar?
Low vendor response rates are one of the most frustrating problems in procurement—and one of the least understood. Most organizations blame the vendors ("They're not serious about our business") or the market ("There just aren't enough qualified vendors in our area").
But in most cases, the problem is the RFP itself. Qualified vendors are busy. They evaluate every RFP opportunity against the time and effort required to respond. And if your RFP sends the wrong signals, they'll invest their time elsewhere.
Here's what's actually driving vendors away, and what you can do about it.
Reason #1: Your RFP Is Too Vague to Price
This is the most common reason good vendors pass on an RFP. When the scope of work is described in general terms—"Provide janitorial services for our building"—vendors can't determine what the project will actually require.
How big is the building? How many floors? How many restrooms? Is there carpet or hard flooring? Do you need daily, weekly, or monthly service? Are supplies included?
Without these details, pricing becomes a guessing game. Conservative vendors will pad their bid to cover unknowns (making them look expensive). Aggressive vendors will lowball it (planning to renegotiate later). And smart, reputable vendors—the ones who price fairly based on actual scope—will pass entirely because they can't submit a bid they'd be comfortable standing behind.
The fix: Write your scope with enough detail that a vendor can price it without calling you to ask questions. Include quantities, frequencies, square footage, and specific deliverables. If you're unsure about certain elements, say so and ask vendors to price them as optional line items.
Reason #2: The Response Effort Doesn't Match the Opportunity
Imagine you're a landscaping company with 40 crews. You receive an RFP from a 50-unit townhome community—a contract probably worth $30,000–$40,000 annually. The RFP is 32 pages long, requires a custom presentation, three professional references with contact details, proof of five types of insurance, a safety program document, an equipment inventory, resumes of key personnel, and responses in three bound copies plus a USB drive.
That response will take your estimator 15–20 hours to prepare. For a $35,000 contract.
You'd pass too.
Response burden is relative to contract value. For a $500,000 construction project, a detailed 20-hour response is reasonable. For a $35,000 annual service contract, the response effort should be proportional—maybe 3–5 hours.
The fix: Match your RFP complexity to the contract size. For standard service contracts under $100,000, keep the RFP under 10 pages, limit required attachments to essentials (insurance, 2–3 references), and accept digital submissions. Use a portal or email—never require physical copies.
Reason #3: Your Timeline Is Unrealistic
"Proposals due in 7 business days."
Seven days might feel generous from your perspective—you need this decision made before the board meeting. But from the vendor's perspective, seven days means they have to drop everything to respond.
Most vendors have a queue of RFPs they're working on. A proposal with an estimator site visit, pricing development, subcontractor quotes (if applicable), reference preparation, and document formatting takes time. For service contracts, 2–3 weeks is standard. For complex projects, 4–6 weeks is appropriate.
When you compress the timeline, you're selecting for vendors who are available—which often means vendors who don't have much work. The busy, in-demand vendors with strong reputations are exactly the ones who can't turn around a quality proposal in a week.
The fix: Give vendors at least 10 business days for simple service contracts and 15–20 business days for complex projects. If you're on a tight internal deadline, start your RFP process earlier rather than compressing the vendor response window.
Reason #4: Vendors Can't Tell If It's a Real Opportunity
Experienced vendors have been burned by "shopping" RFPs—solicitations where the organization has already selected a preferred vendor but needs additional bids for comparison or compliance purposes. Responding to these wastes the vendor's time and erodes trust in your organization's procurement process.
Signals that make vendors suspect your RFP isn't genuine: the scope seems tailored to one specific vendor's capabilities, the timeline is unusually tight (suggesting urgency to complete a formality), the RFP arrived without prior relationship or outreach, or the organization has a known relationship with an incumbent vendor and hasn't explained the re-bid rationale.
Even if your RFP is completely legitimate, these signals matter. Perception drives vendor behavior.
The fix: Be transparent about why you're issuing the RFP. If you're rebidding an existing contract, say so: "Our current agreement expires December 31 and we are evaluating all options." If you have an incumbent vendor who is also bidding, disclose that. Transparency builds trust, and trusted organizations attract more (and better) vendors.
Reason #5: You're Only Reaching Vendors Who Check Their Email
If your vendor outreach consists of emailing a PDF to companies you found on Google, you're missing a large portion of qualified vendors in your market.
Many vendors—especially in trades like landscaping, plumbing, electrical, and construction—rely on word of mouth and industry networks rather than email marketing. The owner might check email once a day. Their estimating team might be in the field. Your email might land in a spam folder or get buried under 200 other messages.
The fix: Diversify your outreach. In addition to email, consider posting your RFP on your organization's website, sharing it through industry associations, and calling your top-choice vendors directly to let them know the opportunity exists. A 2-minute phone call—"Hey, we're issuing an RFP for landscaping and we'd love to see a proposal from you"—dramatically increases response rates from the vendors you most want to hear from.
Reason #6: Your Submission Process Is Painful
Some submission barriers are obvious (requiring physical copies shipped to your office). Others are subtle but equally damaging.
Common submission pain points: requiring vendor registration on an enterprise procurement portal that takes 45 minutes to set up, demanding responses in a specific Word template that doesn't format properly on the vendor's system, requiring electronic signatures on documents before allowing proposal submission, or mandating that vendors submit through a system that requires a login, password, and multi-factor authentication.
Each friction point costs you responses. Enterprise procurement portals are a particular offender—they're designed for large government contracts where vendors invest significant resources per opportunity. For a $50,000 service contract, asking a vendor to create an account, fill out a vendor profile, upload certifications, and navigate a 15-step submission workflow is disproportionate.
The fix: Make submission as easy as possible. Accept email submissions for simple projects. If you use a portal, choose one that doesn't require vendor registration or login. Bid Grid's vendor portal uses a simple link—vendors click it, view the RFP, and submit their proposal without creating an account. This removes the single biggest barrier to vendor participation.
Reason #7: Your Reputation Precedes You
This is the reason nobody talks about, but it matters—especially in local markets where vendors talk to each other.
If your organization has a reputation for slow payment, difficult board members, unreasonable expectations, frequent vendor changes, or adversarial contract management, word gets around. Vendors will pass on your RFPs not because of anything in the document, but because of what their colleagues have told them about working with you.
The fix: This one takes time to address, but it starts with self-awareness. Ask your current vendors (anonymously, if needed) how they perceive your organization as a client. Pay invoices on time. Communicate clearly and respectfully. Treat the vendor relationship as a partnership, not an adversarial negotiation. Over time, your reputation improves—and so does your vendor response rate.
What "Good" Looks Like: Response Rate Benchmarks
For context, here's what healthy response rates look like by project type:
Standard service contracts (landscaping, janitorial, snow removal): 4–8 responses from a distribution of 10–15 vendors is healthy. If you're getting fewer than 3, something is wrong with your RFP or outreach.
Specialized services (IT, engineering, architecture): 3–5 responses from a targeted list of 8–12 firms is normal. These services have fewer providers and longer proposal development times.
Construction projects: 3–6 general contractor bids is typical, though this varies significantly by market conditions. In hot construction markets, response rates drop because contractors are already booked.
If your response rates consistently fall below these ranges, revisit the seven reasons above. The answer is almost always in the RFP itself or the submission process.
The Quick-Win Checklist
If you want to improve your vendor response rate on your very next RFP, focus on these five changes:
- Add specifics to your scope. Quantities, frequencies, and measurements.
- Set a fair timeline. Minimum 10 business days for simple contracts.
- Simplify submission. Email or a no-login portal.
- Call your top 3 vendors. Let them know the opportunity exists.
- Include your evaluation criteria. Vendors respond better when they know how they'll be judged.
These five changes take less than an hour to implement and typically increase response rates by 40–60%.
If you want a tool that handles most of this automatically—structured scope templates, professional vendor portal without login requirements, built-in evaluation criteria, and easy distribution—take a look at Bid Grid. The free tier lets you build your RFP and see how the vendor experience works before spending anything.
Ready to hear back from vendors? Create a professional RFP free →
Frequently Asked Questions
How many vendors should I send my RFP to?
For service contracts, distribute to 10–15 vendors to target 4–8 responses. For specialized services, 8–12 is appropriate. Always include a mix of vendors you've worked with before and new prospects to keep the field competitive.
Should I follow up with vendors who don't respond?
Yes, one follow-up is appropriate. A brief email or phone call 5–7 days before the deadline asking if they plan to submit is professional and often recovers 1–2 additional responses from vendors who got busy.
Is it okay to extend the deadline if I'm not getting enough responses?
Absolutely. Extending by 5–7 business days and notifying all vendors (including those who've already submitted) is standard practice and shows flexibility. It's better than making a decision from an insufficient pool.
Do vendors prefer email or portal submission?
Most vendors prefer whichever option is simplest. Email works for small, straightforward RFPs. For larger projects with multiple documents, a portal is easier for vendors to organize their submission—as long as it doesn't require registration.